RICO X PARIA ENSEMBLE: REIMAGINING THE FUTURE OF LATIN ELECTRONIC MUSIC AT MUTEK FESTIVAL 2025

MUTEK Montréal has always existed at the intersection of sound, technology, and imagination. More than just a festival, it has become a meeting point for artists who challenge the limits of electronic music and explore new forms of expression through experimentation, audiovisual experiences, and immersive performance.

For BARCODE, MUTEK represents the same spirit that drives our own exploration of underground culture: celebrating artists who are building new worlds through music, art, fashion, and technology. The future of culture is often created in the margins, through communities experimenting, collaborating, and finding new ways to connect beyond traditional boundaries.

Among the artists pushing these boundaries this year was RICO RICA, a Colombian-born multidisciplinary artist whose work exists between ancestral memory and digital futurism. Through her practice as a DJ, producer, vocalist, curator, and community organizer, RICO explores the relationship between migration, identity, technology, and the sounds that shape our personal histories.

After the performance, we sat down with RICO over the phone to discuss digital diaspora, queer Latin futures, community building, and the evolving role of electronic music in creating spaces where cultures can meet.

WRITTEN BY ROCHELLE ALLEN

RICO RICA, also known as mmmmrico, is a Colombian-Canadian DJ, singer-songwriter, and creative director whose work exists at the intersection of Caribbean heritage, queer club culture, and digital futurism. Rooted in the sounds of Barranquilla’s Carnival and the picó sound system tradition, RICO blends Dembow, Guaracha, Champeta, and experimental electronics to create high-energy performances that transform Latin folklore through a futuristic lens.

Drawing from the idea of digital diaspora, RICO explores how underground communities across borders use sound, technology, and nightlife to build new forms of connection. Following the release of La Tetona (2023), Rico expanded their global presence through international performances, while developing platforms like Worldwide Baddies, Club Cadera, and Paria Records, initiatives dedicated to amplifying QTBIPOC artists and creating spaces for marginalized voices within electronic music.

Their upcoming debut EP, produced alongside Bclip, continues this exploration of Latin futurism, weaving together ancestral rhythms, electronic experimentation, and personal histories into a sonic origin story that bridges Colombia’s Caribbean roots with the global underground.

Bclip is a Colombian producer, DJ, and live performer emerging from the picó culture of Colombia’s Caribbean coast. Raised in Soledad, Atlántico, his sound moves between reggaetón, salsa, champeta, IDM, and hard house, creating what he describes as “LA GRA$A” — a raw, distorted, and unapologetic approach to Latin electronic music.

Originally working behind the scenes as a ghost producer, Bclip later became a defining figure within Bogotá’s underground scene, merging ghetto futurism with queer club experimentation. As co-founder of Boom Full Meke and Paria Records, he challenges traditional ideas of Latin music by transforming cultural references into intense, forward-thinking dancefloor experiences rooted in research, rebellion, and the energy of the periphery.

DIGITAL DIASPORA: FINDING EACH OTHER THROUGH THE INTERNET

When RICO describes their sound as rooted in digital diaspora, they aren’t simply referring to technology or online culture. For her, the term represents a generation of displaced communities who found each other through the internet, creating connections that may not have existed otherwise.

The concept began taking shape during the isolation of the pandemic, when physical borders closed, but digital spaces became places where artists, migrants, and underground communities could find each other.

Rochelle: You described your sound as rooted in digital diaspora. What does that term mean to you personally and sonically?

Rico: The digital diaspora is this global queer migrant scene and how we can exchange between us through digital media.

“I started thinking about that in 2020 during the pandemic, and that's kind of when I discovered how much the diasporic community worldwide needed a space to get together, especially when we were all isolated.”

For RICO, the pandemic revealed something powerful: even while separated from their homes, families, and cultures, people across the world were finding unexpected similarities through music. Online streams became more than performances; they became gathering points.

“What really made me connect to music were the online streams that people were doing that made me realize that we had a lot in common. Everyone that was from the diaspora, not only Latin America, but just people that were away from their loved ones, away from their country where they were born and spread all over the world.”

That feeling of connection became the foundation of RICO’s understanding of digital diaspora. The internet became a place where communities that often existed on the margins could recognize themselves in each other.

“The digital culture that was born during the pandemic made a lot of us find community and find solace in a time where everything was so lonely.”

For many underground artists, online spaces became the first place where different scenes could collide. A producer in Montreal could discover a collective in Mexico City. A DJ in Colombia could connect with artists across Asia. A queer migrant could find a community thousands of kilometres away that understood their experience.

RICO explains that these connections continue beyond the digital world, creating a shared language between artists who may have never physically met.

“The other day, I met an artist from New York and we've been following each other online for a long time. We were talking and talking about the same people that we had never met each other, but we had the same references of the online collectives and the music scene and icons in the scene.”

This network of shared references has shaped RICO’s own artistic evolution. Through these digital communities, he discovered sounds and movements from around the world, from Southeast Asian electronic music to Brazilian and Latin American scenes that expanded his understanding of what his own music could become.

“I got to learn so much about Southeast Asian electronic music, and I feel like that really inspired me in what I'm DJing and also in the sounds I'm producing.”

Rather than viewing the internet as a replacement for physical community, RICO sees it as a tool that allows underground cultures to communicate, exchange ideas, and build new connections across borders.

A digital world creating very real relationships.

QUEER LATIN FUTURES: RECLAIMING THE PAST TO IMAGINE THE FUTURE

For RICO, imagining the future of Latin electronic music doesn’t mean abandoning the past. Instead, the future begins by looking backwards. Returning to the ancestral sounds, histories, and cultural movements that have always existed, but have often been overlooked or pushed aside.

When discussing what a Latin futurist sound could look like through a queer lens, RICO challenges the idea that innovation always has to come from creating something completely new. Sometimes, the most radical thing is reclaiming what already exists and allowing different voices to reshape it.

Rochelle: Your work feels like it exists in a Latin futurist space. How do you imagine the future of Latin electronic music, especially through a queer lens?

Rico: I would picture seeing more queer people go back to those roots… ancestral music through the lens of queer futures.

RICO explains that a lot of their inspiration comes from existing traditions, from the sounds of Latin America’s past to the artists who were already pushing boundaries long before the current wave of experimental electronic music.

“I feel like in a way everything has already been done. I find it hard to think of something new.”

Rather than searching for something entirely unfamiliar, RICO looks toward reinterpretation. They draw inspiration from the genres that shaped their upbringing: old cumbias, vallenatos, salsas, and the music of previous generations that continues to influence Latin culture today.

“I take a lot of inspiration from things that have already existed. I love 2000s music in Latin America and even further away, like really old cumbias and vallenatos and salsas from the past.”

For RICO, the future of Latin music is about opening these traditions to the communities that have historically been excluded from defining them. They imagine a world where queer artists, women, and marginalized communities are not only participating in these genres but actively reshaping their narratives.

They recall discovering the story of a women-led vallenato ensemble that challenged a genre traditionally dominated by men, an example of how resistance and innovation have always existed within Latin music histories.

“I feel like that's kind of a future that I would see, queer people and women and minorities that are not necessarily a traditional cis man take for themselves and reinterpret these genres that are very our own from our culture.”

This vision extends beyond identity alone. While RICO’s work is deeply informed by their experience as a non-binary and gender-fluid artist, they emphasize that the future they imagine is about creating space for all voices that have been pushed to the margins.

“As much as I am non-binary and gender fluid, queer is not really a label that I put on my music… it’s more about really the minorities and the voices that are in the margins that don't have room in the scene right now.”

For RICO, Latin futurism is not about creating a fantasy disconnected from reality; it is about recognizing the artists who have already been building that future.

They point to artists like Arca, Bclip, and other pioneers within Latin electronic movements who have spent years expanding what the genre can become.

The issue, RICO explains, is not a lack of innovation; it is a lack of recognition.

“I would love to see a future where all these queer artists that have been pioneering for so long get the recognition they deserve, get international tours, get label deals, and get to be abundant and safe.”

However, as Latin sounds continue gaining popularity internationally, RICO also raises concerns about cultural extraction. They have watched movements like Baile-funk, Afrobeat, and Latin club sounds become trends within global nightlife while the communities that created and nurtured those sounds often remain overlooked.

For RICO, the solution is intentionality.

“I just hope things turn around a bit and it becomes more ethical and more conscious, for people to really be researching.”

They highlight artists who actively credit and collaborate with the communities behind the sounds they draw inspiration from, mentioning examples like artists who bring Latin American pioneers onto international stages rather than simply borrowing from the culture.

The future RICO imagines is not one where Latin music becomes absorbed into a global mainstream machine. It is one where the people who built these movements are finally centred.

“It’s about decentralizing the scene from these white scenes or European or North American artists.”

For RICO, the future is not about leaving behind where they come from. It is about carrying those roots forward, allowing ancestral sounds, queer perspectives, and underground communities to shape what comes next.

THE MUTEK PERFORMANCE: WHERE ANCESTRAL MEMORY MEETS DIGITAL FUTURISM

For RICO, the stage at MUTEK became more than a performance space; it became a place where different timelines could exist at once. A meeting point between the sounds of Barranquilla’s Caribbean coast, the electronic worlds discovered through migration, and the digital communities that shaped their artistic journey.

The performance was a culmination of everything that has influenced RICO: Colombian carnival traditions, the energy of picó sound systems, queer club culture, and the experimental possibilities of electronic music.

Rather than simply adding Latin elements on top of electronic production, Rico’s goal was to rethink the foundations of both worlds, asking what happens when ancestral sounds are not treated as samples or references, but as living instruments that can evolve.

Photography: Bruno Aiello-Destombes

Rochelle: Rico X Paria Ensemble feels like a collision of ancestral exploration, but also futurism. What was the initial spark that made you want to merge these two worlds on a live stage for MUTEK?

Rico: It was about showing all the different facets of myself.

The idea behind the performance began with RICO’s upcoming EP with Bclip, a project built around the sounds and experiences that shaped their identity. The goal was never to create a simple fusion of genres, but to tell a story through sound, one that connected where RICO came from with where they were going.

“I am born and raised in Barranquilla, Colombia. My mom comes from the Indigenous Guajira. And I grew up surrounded by these sound systems that were playing African music nonstop day and night.”

Growing up surrounded by cumbia, salsa, champeta, and reggaetón, RICO never experienced these genres as separate categories. They were simply the soundtrack of home.

“Thinking that all of that together and reggaeton, Y2K reggaeton, all of that to me was one thing. It was just like, yeah, that's what home sounds like to me.”

But that sonic identity expanded when RICO moved and discovered new communities abroad. Their time in Barcelona introduced them to underground queer nightlife, hardcore, techno, and experimental electronic scenes, while Montreal and digital communities continued to expand their understanding of what club music could become.

“The Barcelona era was a shifting moment in my life… discovering the underground queer scene and the raves and the fastness of techno and electronic music in general.”

These experiences became the foundation for the MUTEK performance: not a separation between Colombian heritage and electronic experimentation, but a conversation between them.

For the live ensemble, RICO wanted the instruments themselves to represent the different parts of their story. Instead of relying only on DJ equipment, they built a performance around live musicians, bringing together Bclip’s production, José’s accordion, Elias’ percussion, and RICO’svocals.

The accordion became one of the most significant elements of the performance.

“The accordion is present in vallenato, but it’s also present in cumbias and carnival-type music. It’s one of the instruments that marks me the most.”

Alongside the accordion came traditional Colombian percussion: the guacharaca, shakers, and timbales, instruments connected to the rhythms RICO grew up with, but reimagined within an electronic framework. The result was not a recreation of traditional music; it was an exploration of what those traditions could become when placed in conversation with modern club culture.

“It’s not just about sampling traditional music and putting it on top of an electronic beat. It’s really about reinventing essential things.”

For RICO, the question became: What would electronic music sound like if it was created through the perspective of a Colombian artist?

“What is a break? What is an Amen break if it was Latino? How would that sound if it was made in my neighborhood of Colombia?”

This approach reflects the deeper philosophy behind RICO’s work: cultural exchange is most powerful when it comes from understanding, not imitation.

The performance also created a meaningful exchange between generations and musical worlds. José, the accordionist who joined RICO on stage, came from a traditional vallenato background, a genre historically shaped by masculine traditions and structures. At first, the experimental direction of the project was unfamiliar. But through collaboration, both artists discovered new possibilities.

“At first he was shocked. He was confused because we had really turned the genre around. But when he understood the vision, he was like, ‘Okay, I see what you guys are doing.’”

For RICO, that moment represented the purpose of the entire project: creating something unfamiliar that still feels deeply connected.

“I want people from Latin America to hear this and be like, ‘Wow, this is different, but it feels like home. It feels new in a way.’”

BUILDING NIGHTLIFE BEYOND THE PARTY: COLLECTIVES AS CULTURAL ARCHITECTURE

For RICO, nightlife has never been just about the hours between midnight and sunrise. The club is only the surface level; underneath is a much deeper network of relationships, histories, and cultural exchange. Through projects like Club Cadera, Worldwide Baddies, and Paria Records, they’ve been exploring how collectives can become more than event organizers: they can become platforms for connection, preservation, and cultural movement.

“When I think about the concept of a safe space, I think it has changed a lot over the last couple of years,” Rico explains. “Especially having organized things in Colombia and Mexico, I realized that a fully safe space never really exists. It’s more about prevention, care, and being responsible for yourself and the people around you.”

That shift in perspective transformed the way they approached producing events. Rather than viewing safety and inclusivity as a label, RICO began looking at the entire ecosystem of a gathering, from accessibility and artist compensation to sound quality, security, and harm reduction.

“As an event producer, it’s a lot more about being well organized and professional,” they say. “Making sure artists are paid a good fee, making sure the event is accessible, making sure people have water, making sure there’s someone trained there if something happens. There are so many things that go into making sure an event is safe.”

For RICO, community isn’t created simply by bringing marginalized people into the same room. It comes from building an environment where different worlds can actually meet.

“I don’t think that a safe space for queer people is a space where there are no straight people,” they explain. “It’s more about how do we build bridges between communities so things are not in a silo by themselves.”

That philosophy sits at the center of Club Cadera, a collective that has grown beyond Montreal’s underground scene into an international network connecting artists across borders. Bringing together sounds and communities from Latin America, Montreal, and beyond, the collective has become a meeting point between diasporas.

“With Cadera, it’s been beautiful because it hasn’t been closed off to a genre or a community, it’s not a queer party, even though we identify as queer as the founders. It’s really about the connection with the music and showcasing talent regardless of whether people are popular or known.”

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Photography: @sowieye

The goal isn’t simply to create another nightlife destination, but to build a space where culture can move freely, where underground artists can find visibility, where different generations can coexist, and where local communities can see themselves represented.

That same approach extends into Worldwide Baddies, a project born from a desire to create opportunities rather than wait for them.

“It was kind of an experiment I was doing when a lot of my friends ended up in a place together and were like, ‘We should just book ourselves,’”

RICO says. “We can’t wait for some other promoters to have the idea or the vision to put all of us together.”

For RICO, collectives are essential because they allow different perspectives to exist simultaneously. No single organization can represent the entire spectrum of Latin electronic music, and that diversity is exactly the point.

“We need that diversity in the Latin electronic music scene right now because people need to understand how broad it is. We’re not limited to just making music that sounds Latin.”

Through Paria Records, RICO and their collaborators focus on amplifying sounds and artists that exist outside the mainstream gaze, artists whose influence often shapes trends before receiving recognition themselves.

“Our role with Paria is bringing what’s in the margins and giving them a worldwide platform; there are so many talented, unrepresented sounds that have been inspiring what’s becoming popular now but haven’t been showcased yet.”

This idea of bridging worlds also informs their work with larger cultural projects like CRTL+ALT Festival. Bringing queer and trans-led culture into public spaces, the festival reflects RICO’s belief that underground communities don’t have to remain hidden; they can reshape the spaces around them.

“What’s beautiful is creating something that everyone can enjoy, not trying to gentrify an area or displace the people who already inhabit that space, but creating something that adapts to its context.”

For RICO, the future of nightlife isn’t about making bigger parties; it’s about creating stronger ecosystems. The dance floor becomes a starting point, not the destination.

Whether through a warehouse event, a record label, or a collective of artists spread across continents, the mission remains the same: creating spaces where culture can evolve, where overlooked voices can take center stage, and where communities can find each other. Because for RICO, nightlife is not just where people gather. It’s where futures are built!

FROM DJ TO ARTIST: FINDING A VOICE BEYOND THE DECKS

For years, Rico has been known primarily through the world of DJing, creating high-energy sets that connect different scenes, cultures, and sounds. But behind the decks, another side of their artistic identity has been developing: the voice.

As RICO enters a new chapter, they are moving away from being defined solely as a DJ and toward embracing a broader identity as a singer-songwriter and live performer. The transition is not about leaving DJ culture behind, but expanding the possibilities of what their artistry can become.

Rochelle: As both a DJ and a singer-songwriter, your voice becomes an instrument. How do you decide when you let your vocals lead versus when you let the rhythm take over?

Rico: I almost always do a hybrid set where I at least sing one of my songs during the set.

RICO explains that over the last few years, their voice has slowly become another layer within their performances, not just something added on top of the music, but another tool for communicating with the crowd.

“I like to make people wait for it or beg for it where they're like, you know, they want to hear the song. So I kind of feel it out through what the crowd wants.”

That relationship between artist and audience has become an important part of RICO’s evolution. Through DJing, they learned how to read energy, control the pace of a room, and create collective moments. Now, through vocals and live performance, they are exploring a more direct form of connection.

A major part of this shift has come through emceeing, using their voice not only to sing, but to interact, improvise, and guide the emotional movement of a space.

“My voice would be used as really like an instrument where I would be singing on top or just improvising and then distorting through the mixer.”

For RICO, the microphone becomes another instrument within the performance, one that allows them to communicate beyond sound alone.

“I want to talk to the crowd and I want to have a connection with them and I want to hype them up and control the energy of the crowd through the voice.”

This desire for deeper connection reflects a larger transformation happening within RICO’s artistic practice. While DJing has allowed them to build communities and explore global sounds, songwriting has become a way to tell more personal stories.

The upcoming music marks a shift toward vulnerability, moving beyond the energy of the dancefloor and into more emotional territory.

One example is their collaboration “Anoche” with 10010, a track that explores longing, memory, and the complexity of relationships through a dreamlike electronic landscape.

Rochelle: Your last track Anoche feels like a nocturnal fever dream, pulsing with sexuality, chaos, and emotion. What was the story behind the collaboration and the world you created with the song?

RICO: It’s my first song that feels a bit more serious in a way, like less lighthearted.

The track began when 10010 invited RICO to collaborate on several songs, eventually becoming part of an upcoming release through Club Romántico. What immediately connected RICO to Anoche was the way the production carried familiar cultural references while still existing within an experimental electronic world.

“It’s this jungle electronic track, but still feels very Latin. The Latin drum pattern in it feels a little bit like salsa choque, which is this type of Colombian salsa, but just slowed down.”

The song became an exploration of memory and emotion, inspired by dreams and the lingering feelings that remain after relationships change.

“I just couldn't start dreaming about someone and I wanted to get it out of my system.”

The track moves between melancholy and intensity, capturing the feeling of being caught between nostalgia and acceptance. For RICO, this represents a new direction: one where their music is not only designed for the club, but also exists as personal storytelling.

“I think I'm moving into a more mature phase of just writing proper songs and moving away from club music with vocals and more into a proper song.”

This evolution is reflected in their upcoming EP with Bclip, which RICO describes as an origin story, a collection of sounds that trace the experiences, places, and genres that shaped who they are today.

“Each song is a different energy, but it’s kind of like an origin story about me where I'm going through all these genres that shaped my childhood or my early life and shaped my sound until now.”

The future RICO imagines for themselves is not a separation between DJ and artist. Instead, it is a world where both identities coexist, where electronic music, live instrumentation, vocals, and cultural memory can all exist together.

After years of creating spaces for others to express themselves, RICO is now stepping further into their own spotlight. Not just as someone who curates the future of music, but as someone actively creating it.

Photography: Bruno Aiello-Destombes

RICO RICA: WHAT COMES NEXT?

After years of building connections through DJing, organizing, and community work, RICO is entering a new phase, one where the focus shifts from being behind the decks to fully embodying the artist they’ve been becoming all along.

“I feel like I really want to get on the stages next year and perform the releases I’m going to have, I want to move more towards being an artist, like a singer-songwriter that sometimes gets booked to do DJ sets, instead of a DJ that sometimes sings a song or two.”

That transition is already taking shape through their upcoming projects, including their debut EP with Bclip on Paria Records. Rather than presenting a single sound, the project acts as an origin story, a reflection of the different genres, cultures, and memories that shaped RICO’s identity.

“I would say it’s kind of like an origin story about me,” they explain. “Going through all these genres that shaped my childhood or my early life and that shaped my sound until now.”

The EP pulls from the many worlds RICO’s has moved through: the Caribbean sounds of Barranquilla, Colombian traditional music, underground club culture, and the experimental electronic scenes that influenced their evolution as an artist. Each track becomes a different fragment of that journey, not a recreation of the past, but a transformation of it.

One of the first glimpses into this next chapter comes through “Jaguar,” the upcoming collaboration with Bclip and the first single connected to the project. The track continues their exploration of Latin electronic futurism, built around the idea of reinventing club music through ancestral sounds and regional memory.

Alongside that release, RICO is also preparing a Carnival-inspired track that brings them back to the sounds that shaped their upbringing.

“I’d love to start embracing more traditional genres,” they say. “Like working on some old-school reggaeton, old-school salsa, or exploring more vallenatos.”

This return to traditional sounds doesn’t represent a step backwards. Instead, it reflects the larger philosophy behind RICO’s work: that the future is created by understanding where you come from.

After years of experimenting with electronic production, RICO is now looking toward live performance, instrumentation, and deeper storytelling.

“My heart is really feeling like connecting with the instruments that I stopped playing a while back,” they explain. “I’m really into live music nowadays, so I’m excited to adapt my upcoming releases to be performed live.”

That next chapter also includes a major personal shift: moving to Mexico City, where RICO hopes to immerse themselves in a new creative environment and reconnect with collaborators across Latin America.

“I feel like there’s so many talented people there that I’m excited to collaborate with,” they say. “Just to be in Latin America is going to feel so good as an artist and be really inspiring.”

The move represents another continuation of the digital diaspora that has shaped so much of RICO’s career, the idea that culture can travel, mutate, and create new connections across borders. But this time, the exchange moves beyond screens and online communities into physical proximity.

While the releases ahead mark a new era, RICO’s foundation remains unchanged: creating connections between past and future, tradition and experimentation, underground communities and global audiences.

From the streets of Barranquilla to Montreal’s underground, from digital communities to international stages, RICO’s work has always been about transformation, taking what already exists and imagining what it could become.

And now, as they step forward as a full artist, the next evolution is just beginning.

RICO’s work reflects the spirit of MUTEK and the underground communities that continue to redefine what art can become. Through sound, technology, and experimentation, they aren’t just creating music; they're building new environments for people to experience, connect, and imagine different futures.

RICO’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mmmmrico